An Empire for You! And Something for the UN?, Summer 2003

The way the world’s only remaining superpower chooses to conduct itself on the world stage and project its immense power and resources on the one hand, and the readiness and propensity of its allies and partners to appreciate its true security needs on the other, have become the two interconnected parts of the central issue of our times. Faced with the vexing question of terrorism U.S. was forced to review its security assessments, the result of which was a paradigm shift and the majority of its allies were not even given the time to begin the process of thinking about the value of adopting a corresponding paradigm, a response of their own. Both the U.S. and France and others in this instance, failed to avoid bitter divisions resulting in collateral damage being inflicted upon not only the international system, especially with regard to the shape of the Security Council, but upon the NATO alliance as well. One the one hand was the  U.S., with its unrelenting commitment to its  new but unrefined paradigm and on the other hand was most of its European allies with no corresponding and modernized paradigms of their own; both lacked a sense of overriding concern and an understanding of their larger responsibilities and international obligations.

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